Bronze Industry Research Articles

Isoko Bronzes and the Lower Niger Bronze Industries

Etude des objets en bronze trouves chez les clans Isoko du Nord-Ouest du delta du Niger (Nigeria), dont une partie ont ete fabriques par les Isoko eux-memes. Revue des recherches effectuees sur les bronzes du Bas-Niger a la lumiere de ces nouvelles donnees.

Igbo Metalsmiths among the Southern Edo

T he Delta provides a fascinating geographical focus for the study of Nigerian bronzes' since many styles of unidentified origin are found coexisting in the context of local religious and leadership institutions. This discussion centers on one group of smiths, itinerant Igbo from Awka, and the part they may have played in the history of the bronzes found in the Delta. Until recently, interest in Nigerian bronzes was concentrated almost exclusively on Ife and Benin. Newer research, however, indicates that other bronze-casting centers also flourished and that some of these may have evolved independently of those bronze-casting workshops west of the River epitomized by Benin. William Fagg first observed this possibility and originated the term Lower Bronze Industry. It functioned as a provisional category for several bronzes found both at Benin City and along the Forcados River to the south, none of which conformed to the royal court style of Benin (1963:40). As further discoveries were made, these were also subsumed under the Lower Niger rubric. The term now incorporates bronzes as disparate as the Tada and Jebba Island complex, the Igbo-Ukwu castings excavated east of the Niger, and figural bronzes reflecting Benin themes. In addition, scores of small and sometimes undistinguished bronzes found in the Delta and across coastal southeastern Nigeria are also regarded as Lower Niger specimens. In sum, the Lower Niger classification applies to bronzes of southern Nigeria not identified as Ife or Benin court styles and not definitely linked to Yoruba centers of bronze casting. Dissatisfaction with the usefulness of the term Lower Niger bronzes is growing, and William Fagg himself readily acknowledges the tentative quality of this intentionally cumbrous appellation (1970:48). Responses to the challenge posed by Nigeria's enigmatic bronzes have followed two courses thus far. Specific loci of origin have been suggested, based on historical and cultural traditions, but without concomitant material evidence. A. F. C. Ryder's alternative to an Ife-Benin axis-the mysterious Ogane kingdom, which he places to the north of the confluence of the and Benue rivers (1965)--impelled Arnold Rubin to call for parallel art historical studies at the confluence to determine whether, indeed, an important polity with sizable metal workshops existed there at one time (1970). Presumably basing his statement on the historical record, Fagg theorizes that the Igala capital of Idah might also have cast bronzes (1963:40). Other competing centers are rumored, but arguments for their existence often lack supporting data and remain speculative. Recently a number of studies based on stylistic analysis have yielded important new information. Efforts have been most intensive in connection with bronzes dis-

The study of ancient Chinese bronzes as art and craft

Abstract Various systems of development have been proposed for archaic ceremonial vessels, mainly depending upon their decorative motifs and schemas. Attempts have also been made to relate these to other media; basketry, bone and wood‐carvings, and ceramics. Recent excavations in China have bridged the temporal gap between the late Neolithic and the mature Bronze Age, making possible more precise datings and a clearer view of the Shang Dynasty's ceramic and bronze industries in particular. A review of earlier studies is presented, comparing one with another, and in consideration of new discoveries. Finally, a synthesis of all tenable theories is offered.

Irske bronzeøkser fra Ulstrup

Irske bronzeøkser fra Ulstrup

The Atlantic Bronze Age in South-west Europe

It may well seem presumptuous to attempt a fresh analysis of the Late Bronze Age in the Iberian peninsula, after the numerous contributions which the subject has received in recent years from Spanish archaeologists, and in view of the fact that the Civil War prevented the writer, when Maclver student in Iberian Archaeology, from visiting Spain at all. In fact he would not have dared to make such an analysis, if the recent output of well illustrated books and articles by Spanish archaeologists had not made study from a distance somewhat less hazardous. But the itinerary which political conditions in 1936–8 imposed on him—Portugal first, then south-western France and finally the Rhône basin—at least showed him an aspect of the Late Bronze Age in south-western Europe which is perhaps less obvious to archaeologists who look from Madrid and Barcelona with eyes trained in Central Europe.Long ago Louis Siret was impressed by the typological lacuna between the copper and bronze implements of early forms in the Iberian peninsula and those which appeared to represent the second and last phase of the local bronze industry. He drew what most archaeologists now recognize to be the right conclusion, namely, that the Early Bronze Age industry of El Argar stagnated and was replaced at a relatively late date by an industry, which had passed through the earlier stages of its development elsewhere, but soon took on a strongly local character. In his recently enunciated Esquema Paletnológico de la Peninsula Iberica Professor Santa Olalla has taken account of this new conception.

The ‘Sword-bearers.’ A Reinterpretation

Two celebrated archaeological studies laid the foundation upon which the prevailing conception of the Late Bronze Age in Britain has been built. In ‘A Prehistoric Invasion of England’ O. G. S. Crawford isolated a number of intrusive forms characteristic of British Late Bronze Age hoards, pointed out how these could be connected with intrusive ‘Deverel-Rimbury’ types of pottery by means of the maple-leaf razors, which occur in settlements as well as hoards, and inferred that these types, including leaf-shaped swords, represented an invasion, which he at first attributed to Goidelic Celts. Peake's Bronze Age and the Celtic World was wider in scope but less critical in method. The evolution of the sword in Bronze Age Europe was analyzed and an almost exclusive reliance placed on the diffusion of the successive types of sword as evidence for far-flung folk-movements. The importance of Peake's work for this study lies in the special turn given to its leading idea a few years later by Estyn Evans, who, in an able paper laid special emphasis on a particular type—the ‘carp's-tongue’ sword—as evidence of a definite folk-movement from the West Alpine area into south-eastern England. Soon afterwards Professor Hawkes gave fuller definition to the ‘Carp's-tongue’ sword complex, to which he assigned bag-shaped chapes, end-winged axes, socketed axes with winged decoration, ‘bugle-shaped objects,’ ‘hog-backed’ razors, and various other types, and clarified the distinction between it and the more widely distributed group of undifferentiated Late Bronze Age hoards regarded as representing the reaction of the native bronze industry.

Find lead poisoning in brass and bronze industries

Find lead poisoning in brass and bronze industries

Bronze industry in Africa

Bronze industry in Africa

Research Items

THE HUNGARIAN BRONZE AGE.—In Man for August, Dr. Lajos Zoltai describes two bronze hoards from Hajdusamson, near Debreczen. The finest examples of the Hungarian bronze industry come from the region known as the Nyirség in the north-east bend of the Tisza, which would appear to have been densely populated and a centre of culture in the Bronze Age. The hoards here described are now in the City Museum of Debreczen. The first consists of a sword and twelve axes found in an orderly grouping which suggests a votive deposit. The leaf-shaped sword is only 53.2 cm. long and has a pommel of which the button consists of closely fitting superimposed rhombs, diminishing in area from the base, the smallest being pointed. Such a pommel is unique in Hungary but is met in Scandinavian swords. Analogous forms of sword are figured by Montelius from north Germany and north Italy. The scroll decoration of the blade is peculiar to Hungary. Three of the axes are similarly decorated. Hajdusamson lies near the centre of the region in which axes ornamented with this scroll pattern are found. It may be described as the centre of the area of fabrication. The second hoard consisted of a number of bronze vessels of which the peculiarity lay in the double handles and their mode of attachment. Mr. Gordon Childe, in an appended note discussing the chronology of the finds, points out that they illustrate two periods of the Hungarian Bronze Age. The leaf-shaped sword belongs to the earliest variety and, being stamped clearly with marks of local manufacture, supplies a link missing in Peake's argument for the Hungarian origin of the type.

The Greeks and Ancient Trade with the Atlantic

Ancient trade between Mediterranean lands and Atlantic Europe was first and foremost a quest by Mediterranean folk for tin, of which the indigenous supplies were insufficient. In this quest the Greeks had a vital interest, in view of the great development of their bronze industry. What actual part did they take in the Atlantic tin traffic?This question raises two others, which will require a brief notice. From what part of the Atlantic seaboard, and by what route, was the tin fetched?Fortunately we need not reopen the controversy over the Cassiterides or Tin Islands, which in the common Greek belief were the source of Western tin. This belief was in any case a mistaken one, for in Western Europe there are no tin deposits worth mentioning on any archipelago of islands. Moreover, the discrepancies between the notions of various ancient writers as to their situation suggest that the name ‘Cassiterides’ was applied in turn to more than one of the Western tin districts. We may therefore circumnavigate the problem of the Cassiterides by treating them as a floating expression like the ‘Spice Islands’ of early modern times, and refusing to attach the name specifically to any one metalliferous area.